


AC20 Day 11: Demons Within: Slow Changes

by The_Rose



Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [11]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: Bonus Chapter, College, F/M, Fluff, Modern AU, superhero au, with a small angst side if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:14:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28013001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rose/pseuds/The_Rose
Summary: Starting his new life with college, Illidan slowly falls in love with his friend Maiev.
Relationships: Maiev Shadowsong/Illidan Stormrage
Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036257
Kudos: 5





	AC20 Day 11: Demons Within: Slow Changes

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> To be honest, my story "Demons Within (Y)our Heart" is one that had hit me like a truck once I had a glimpse of what I could tell and I love it very much, and as there's so much that I haven't, or at least won't tell that much yet, I wanted to do a bonus chapter for that one.
> 
> So here's a little chapter that takes place at the beginning of Illidan and Maiev's relationship. And then, I'll see you next year for the next chapter of Demons Within ^^
> 
> Enjoy!

The bell finally rang, and Illidan yawned as he took the pen between his fingers, looking at the auditorium slowly filling in for the first class of the day, scanning every face that was passing the door as he waited for Maiev. Usually, Maiev was there early, sometimes even before he would get there, so as he couldn’t see her that morning, he started to worry. Taking out his phone, he quickly scrolled through the news, in case there would have been a villain attack near the flat that she was renting and that she was either in the hospital or dead…

Illidan quickly shook his head at that thought. If only he could stop thinking like that! Not only would he have been called to fight if there had been a villain this close to his position, but also, not every villain was bloodthirsty to the point of killing everything in sight. And as he felt his heart once again pounding in his chest, and the tip of his fingers becoming hot, he realized he needed to calm down, and quickly, if he didn’t want to accidentally start a fire. So, he started to breathe more slowly, concentrating on it, and gradually, his body cooled down and he felt better. And as soon as he finally laid his eyes on Maiev, hurrying through the door, he knew the day would go well.

“Hi Maiev,” he quickly said as she sat down next to him, yawning loudly.

“Hi,” she only replied, rubbing her face in her hands.

“Rude awakening?”

“Oh please,” she groaned. “The housemates partied all night and I couldn’t sleep. I almost fell asleep, but exactly when my alarms rang, so I had to fight it to get here.”

“Will you be alright?”

“I will,” she said with a lot of determination in her voice.

Illidan smiled and focused his attention on the esplanade down the auditorium, as the teacher had finally made his appearance, a mug of coffee in his hand and his laptop under the arm, ready to explain to the class the marvel of mathematics. They all felt that it was going to be quite boring again, especially that the teacher wasn’t really the best to explain them interestingly, but they had no other choices if they wanted their credits to pass to the second year. But for Illidan, he was just impatient. Since he had gotten into college, it was the first time that he was really interested in his own education, and it had been so much that he almost tried to take every single class available to follow. But Magtheridon quickly talked him out about it, explaining to him that he had to keep free time in case they would need him to play the superhero at some point.

As the teacher began his lesson, Illidan took notes of everything that he deemed interesting for the finals that would get there quite fast, but he quickly got interrupted as he felt a weight against his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw Maiev, leaning against him, her eyes closed and mouth almost opened.

“Maiev,” he whispered, shaking her shoulder.

But she didn’t answer and Illidan clearly understood what was happening, but he couldn’t let her sleep like that. Not only was it uncomfortable for him to keep writing down his notes, but also, it was pretty obvious that Maiev was sleeping, and he didn’t want the teacher to notice, so he had to seemingly hide her. Gently, he grabbed her around the shoulders and moved her in a way so she would be lying down on the bench, and her head was resting on his laps. He quickly brushed her hair with a smile and then, went back to his notes, taking out another sheet to start taking notes for Maiev.

Once the bell rang to announce the break, the teacher quickly agreed for it, and left to refill his mug in the staff room, leaving the class to themselves for the following quarter. On his side, Illidan was finishing to write down his notes a second time, making sure that it wasn’t too much of a mess, and he smiled proudly at it. Like that, Maiev wouldn’t have to worry about falling behind for that class, and speaking of Maiev, she was still sleeping next to him, her head on his lap. Gently, Illidan grabbed her head and lifted it as he moved away, and then, put his bag as a replacement for a pillow and he got up, stretching after those two hours of uninterrupted mathematics. Looking at Maiev and their surroundings to be sure that she was safe, he quickly went into the hallway where the faculty had put a coffee maker available to the students, and he made two coffees.

As he went back into the auditorium, the two paper cups filled with the hot liquid, he noticed that Maiev had woken up and was sitting, a will to kill anyone that would dare to approach her in her eyes, but he didn’t care. Maiev would never hurt him. He went back to his place, putting one of the coffees in front of her as he smiled.

“Feeling better?” he asked, sitting back.

“Not really,” she admitted, trying to stretch her shoulders. “It was incredibly uncomfortable and now, I feel like I’m nauseous…”

Saying that, she glanced at the coffee in front of her, and even if she was grateful that Illidan was taking care of her, she wasn’t sure she could drink a coffee right away. Meanwhile, the man furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at her, and indeed, he quickly noticed that she was pretty pale compared to the other days.

“Do you want to go home? Maybe that a good nap in a bed will help you?”

Maiev quickly checked the hour on her phone, and groaned loudly.

“I can’t, even if I leave now, I will miss the bus, and I will have to wait for at least one hour before the next.”

Illidan leaned down, crossing his arms over his bust as an idea slowly took form in his mind. A bad idea, considering the contract he had made with the agency, but also, he only wanted to help Maiev, especially after she had been the one to help him. But even there, it would just be once, and for one day…

“Well, the flat I’m renting is about ten minutes from here on foot… And the teacher already warned us that the next hour would only be us doing exercises and that he would give us the answers so we can correct them by ourselves…” he awkwardly offered, trying to justify himself.

“So, you’re saying that we ditch school for the rest of the day and go to your place?” she pointed out, smiling back at him.

“It would give you a place to nap in peace, and I’m sure we can ask a classmate to send us the exercises, and I have the theory here,” he proudly said as he showed the sheets on which he had taken the notes.

Maiev smiled at his enthusiasm and knew that she was going to accept his offer. After all, she was trusting him, and they had been friends from the very first day of college when she had been the one to reach a helping hand as he wasn’t feeling well. It was only fair that she accepted. Especially that it wasn’t bothering her at all to spend some time alone with him.

“It’s probably the better option, thank you,” she finally said.

Quickly, they packed back their stuff into their bags and got up to leave the auditorium. On their way out of the faculty, they ran into the teacher, and Illidan quickly explained that he was bringing Maiev to her home as she wasn’t feeling well, and even gave his email to him so he could send them the exercises. Maiev softly smiled as she looked at him doing his best to not fall behind the lessons, even for just one day. And finally, as they were out of the place, Illidan guided her towards the center of the city where the flat that the agency was renting for him was.

As they entered inside, Maiev whistled and laughed at all the luxury from such a place.

“Whoa, it’s surely something,” she teased him as Illidan was clearly embarrassed.

“I had no say in the flat,” he explained, saying the truth. “The people handling my scholarship and the flat gave me no choices in either. I think it’s because they already have an agreement with most of those places. But if it had only depended on me, I would have chosen something much simpler.”

“And you’re modest with that,” she kept laughing.

Illidan looked away. If only she knew… But now that it was his past, and that he had changed, he wasn’t going to react about it, as after all, he knew that Maiev only wanted to tease him, and she had never outright been rude with him. Unlike some people he knew.

“The couch should be comfortable enough for a nap,” he said, showing the couch to Maiev. “I can add pillows and light blankets if needed.”

“Thanks,” she smiled at him as she sat on the couch. “I think I’ll be good.”

And as soon as she laid down, she fell asleep, and Illidan stayed still for a moment, watching her sleeping more peacefully than earlier. He still went to grab a plaid and put it over her body before switching to the table where he took out his laptop, checked his mail to grab the exercises that the teacher sent, and also to make sure that the agency hadn’t tried to get in contact with him about something. He had no idea what it could be, but he was always ready no matter what. But as he had only received the mail from the teacher, he looked back at Maiev, smiling at her once again, and then, opened the mail and began his work.

A few hours had passed and slowly, the sun was declining in the sky. Looking at the hour, Illidan closed his laptop, the exercises were done; corrected, and understood, and then, went to the kitchen, opened to the big living-room, and checked his fridge. He took the few eggs that he had left, and a bag of rice from a cupboard, putting them next to the hob, and checked once again the hour, then, his eyes went to Maiev, still deeply sleeping on the couch. As he was starting to expect, Maiev wouldn’t be able to get home for the night, as her last bus would soon leave.

As he began to hum a song that he had heard while working on his lessons, Illidan moved towards the bedroom and quickly, he changed the sheet, putting the old one to the laundry, and also opened the windows to aerate the room a little, despite the autumn wind becoming colder every day. Rubbing his hand together to produce some heat, he blew inside them and a small flame danced between his palms. He chuckled as he made it disappear once he closed his hands and went back towards the living-room. Maiev was still sleeping, allowing him to realize that she really didn’t have the possibility to sleep at all last night, and then, began to make dinner.

As he was finishing, he finally heard her moving, and just by glancing at her, he noticed that indeed, she was waking up. She looked around, clearly lost as to where she was after such a big nap, and it made Illidan chuckle, getting Maiev to look at him.

“Oh right,” she whispered before talking out loud. “Which hours?”

“Almost seven.”

Immediately, Maiev took her face in her hands and groaned about her bus, cursing herself to have allowed her body to sleep for so long. After all, she was probably abusing Illidan’s hospitality by staying for so long, and she didn’t want it to become a problem, so, she began to wonder how long it would take her to walk to her flat who was in a little village next to the city. On the other side, Illidan just knew that Maiev was thinking about it, and for a moment, he thought that he could bring her back, as he could probably be there really fast thanks to his wings. But he had promised that no one would discover that he had superpowers, and thus, quickly brushed away that possibility.

“You can stay for the night,” he told her, gently smiling. “I already made dinner, omelet, and rice.”

With those words, he showed her the pan in which the eggs were slowly cooking, and then, put it back on the fire. Meanwhile, Maiev had left the couch and went to lean against the counter separating the open kitchen and the living room.

“Are you sure? It doesn’t bother you?”

“Why would it bother me?” he genuinely asked. “If I wanted you out, I would have woken you up for you to get your bus, but I realized you really needed that nap so I let you sleep completely.”

“Oh, thanks,” she replied, lowering her head to hide the blush appearing over her face.

“And as you already spent the afternoon on the couch, you can use my bed for the night, and don’t worry, I changed the sheets.”

Saying that, he laughed a little while concentrating on his eggs, and Maiev was extremely happy that he wasn’t looking at her at that moment, as she was unable to get rid of the smirk spread on her face from the announcement.

“Oh really?” she asked, already imagining what it would be to sleep in his arms.

“Yes,” affirmed Illidan proudly. “I’ll be the one to use the couch.”

Immediately, Maiev dropped her head and snickered as a hollow laugh escaped her lips. He was just too nice and she shouldn’t have been surprised that he only wanted them to exchange the place to sleep. But it wasn’t up to her to change his mind. He was already nice enough to welcome her in his flat, when he had been pretty discreet about his life until now, so she knew that she only needed to wait a little more. After all, it was barely three or four months that they had met.

The evening went as good as it could be. The dinner had been devoured, mostly by Maiev who hadn’t eaten at all from the day and who had a well-deserved glare from Illidan once she admitted it, and they followed it by Illidan explaining to her everything that she had missed from the lesson of the day, and helping her through the exercises. Finally, they finished the evening by watching the television, and once it was time to go to sleep, Maiev asked one last time if it wasn’t bothering Illidan to sleep on the couch. Unfortunately for her, the discreet invitation flew right above him and he reassured her again that no, it wasn’t bothering him at all as long as she can get a good night of sleep. She told him goodnight and left for his bedroom while Illidan stayed in the living-room.

His fingers were strumming on his chest as he kept looking at the ceiling, a really big smile all over his face as he remembered how close they had been to each other all day. Until he had met her on the first day of college, Illidan had never really searched for any kind of relationship. It was him against the world, and he couldn’t care less about those petty feelings of teenagers and he went on with his life, also perfectly aware that he just couldn’t get in a relationship if he wanted, as it would be way too dangerous. So, when they had worked the contract at the agency, he didn’t even bat an eye when they decided that to protect his identity, he had to forsake any close relationship with anyone. But since he had met Maiev, it was becoming harder to not care about that clause.

Sighing, he took out his phone and went through the contact list until he found Magtheridon's name, and his thumb stayed over the calling icon for what seemed an eternity to him. It wasn’t a good idea, and yet, he had to try. Finally, he pushed it and brought the phone to his ears, waiting for his overseer to accept the call. Each tonality that he was hearing was convincing him more and more that he shouldn’t make that call, but before he could change his mind and stop the call, he heard the voice.

“Yes?” barked the raspy voice.

“Hi Magtheridon, it’s Illidan,” he awkwardly stated, already regretting everything. “I hope I’m not bothering you…”

“Have you seen the hour? It better be important!”

“Oh… Er… I’ve been thinking about the contract and… Do… Do you think we could… Like eventually… Maybe… Rework it?”

“No,” the overseer replied, cutting down all conversation. “You are under oath, and that contract has been made expressly to keep you under control. It will not be reworked.”

“Oh… Alright, I understand,” awkwardly laughed Illidan. “Sorry to have bothered you, good –”

But before he could finish his sentence, the other man had already hanged off and Illidan just sighed as he left his phone slide down his hand and fell on the ground. What was he thinking? That just because he had been nice they would allow him to completely rework the contract? Despite that he only wanted to rework one little thing, not like the entirety. But Magtheridon was right, Illidan tried to convince himself, he couldn’t afford to loosen the rules, or he would more than probably end up making a mistake.

Looking towards his bedroom, he sighed a little louder.

And even if he was reworking the contract to allow Maiev in his life, he wasn’t even sure that it was what she wanted. So, it was for the best actually, it was going to protect him for when the inevitable rejection would come.

And it was with that new resolution that he finally allowed himself to sleep, even if he knew that he wasn’t believing it himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Tomorrow: The longest fic of the calendar (over 10k words) with a funny and common trope. If you've seen the 2003's version of Freaky Friday, you're going to have a blast.
> 
> See you tomorrow and every day until Christmas with a new fic!
> 
> \----  
> Unfortunately, English isn't my first language so if someone is interested in becoming my beta-reader for the language, hit me up on my Tumblr!  
> Or if you just want to talk about WoW, my fics, someone else fics, or anything, you can still hit me up there!
> 
> https://thewritingof-therose.tumblr.com/
> 
> or on Discord
> 
> https://discord.gg/nvKggwc (An Illidan/Maiev Discord)
> 
> Later!
> 
> (Comments are welcomed and appreciated :D)


End file.
